D.C. History / Community

D.C. Afro-Latino History: Honoring Casilda Luna

By hola | Published February 25, 2019 | 2 Comments

Have you heard of Casilda R. Luna?

She is one of Washington, D.C.’s first, most effective and beloved Latina activists. Though you won’t read about her in history books, she was witness to—and often a maker of—local history.

The Vida Senior Center, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, is one of the enduring D.C. Latino institutions Luna helped establish. She was among the organizers of Washington’s Hispanic Festival long before it morphed into FiestaDC and moved out of Adams Morgan. Proud of her Hispanic culture and a fighter for diversity and inclusion even before those expressions became buzzwords, Casilda Luna touched generations of D.C. Latino lives. She also worked as a bilingual social worker in D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood, helping needy local residents find housing and meet other pressing needs.

Now in her 90s, Casilda Luna has been retired for decades, but her impact on today’s community was evident in the standing-room only celebration of her life on Feb. 12 at Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library. Dozens of family, friends and community members braved the cold weather to hear the recollections of close friends and associates, and those of Luna, herself.

The event, held in conjunction with Black History Month, was organized by the Friends of Casilda Luna Committee, with support from the D.C. Public Library; the D.C. AfroLatino Caucus; and the D.C. Latino Leadership Council. The evening highlighted D.C.’s rich Afro-Latino history that is part of both the District’s Black and Hispanic histories.

While waiting for the event to begin, eager faces and excited voices filled the community room. Every seat was taken. People milled around in the back and spilled out into the library’s lobby, while others admired historic photos displayed around the room. Luna as a young woman with flowers in her hair, standing in front of a Washington apartment building, right hand on one cocked hip and a radiant smile on her face. Many of the photos from street protests, community meetings and festivals were taken by photographer and Adams Morgan resident Nancy Shia.

The family photos also on display featured many of Luna’s children, grandchildren, friends and former collegues who were sitting in the audience as Manuel Mendez, an oral historian and president of DC AfroLatino Caucus, opened the program with a short interview with the lady herself. As the rapt audience looked on, Luna explained how her gratitude to the Latino community fueled her activism.

This gratitude can move people to actions,” she counseled the audience, emphasizing the empowering nature of helping others.

Casilda Luna was born in the Dominican Republic. She arrived in Washington in 1962, at the age of 36, to work in the home of a retired U.S. general. At a time when the Civil Rights Movement and other transformative movements were heightening political and cultural tensions in the United States, as well as in the District, Luna became a voice for the growing and diverse Latino community.

Upon her arrival in Washington, she came to realize that people come to the U.S. for different reasons but, for all, the “options of immigrants were far and few”.

Understanding that immigrants faced inequalities served as the catalyst for her efforts to create positive social change, she told the audience.

The evening explored her early days as a recently-arrived immigrant in a low-wage job to her emergence as an activist for all D.C. residents, including but not limited to Latinos. Luna was involved in just about every key aspect of life and activism in what was then a very different Washington, D.C.

Reacting to the early stages of gentrification, Luna became a tenants’ rights organizer in the late 1970s. As president of the Imperial Apartments Tenant Association in Adams Morgan, she led her neighbors in a fight against their landlord that first improved their living conditions and eventually led them to purchase the building and turn it into an affordable housing cooperative.

As befits a person with such wide-ranging impact, among the dignitaries on hand on Feb. 12 was Ambassador Francisco Cruz of the Dominican Republic, and Ward 1 D.C. Councilor Brianne Nadeau.

But Archie Williams, her former supervisor at a social service agency in the Cardozo Heights area of Columbia Heights, shared humorous and endearing recollections of working with Luna as a young man. He came to the organization as a manager, charged with supervising Luna and her coworkers, though he recalled that she was the one usually in charge. Williams told the audience how Luna not only taught him about work, she showed him which fork to use on a formal place setting and was not shy in offering him other life advice.

Luna’s life-long commitment to social justice and equality has had a lasting impact on the D.C. community. The celebration was a reminder of progress made over the years, and what is left to be done. Addressing the latter, Luna offered words of inspiration and encouragement, urging people to get involved in D.C. politics and remain proud of their culture, language and heritage.

— Victoria Anorve

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